Monday, January 30, 2012

National Seminar on Commercial Emu Farming


www.indianlivestockfarms.com are organizing “National Seminar ON COMMERCIAL EMU   Farmingon 24th June, 2012 at COINDIA Auditorium, K.R. Puram, Coimbatore. Government Departments and Public Sectors are supported in this Seminar.  Many leading Emu Farms are Sponsor our Seminar. In this One Day Seminar, they are going to be Discussed many Topics related to Emu Farming Improvements.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Emu Industry (India) - Past, Current and Future

It is no surprise if i say Emu bird is well known to our farmers in India. In the last 5 years many emu farms came up India in the states Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat. It is estimated we have roughly 1 million emu birds in India and 40% in Andhra Pradesh state. So far emu farmers getting the handful return by selling the chicks to other farmers. One can find the news and articles in internet that how you can get the good returns and emu farming and testimonials from the emu farmers.
So far so good, the farmers are getting the good returns, but we need to look how the emu industry is progressing, what are the emu products and its market value, domestic consumption ,export opportunities; etc and is it sustainable to do emu farming in future etc.

Let’s look the emu products that we can get from emu farming
  • Emu meat
  • Emu oil
  • Emu leather
  • Emu feathers
  • Emu egg shells for Arts & Gallery
In the past and current none of the emu products were available in the market. Farmers are more interested in selling the chicks to quickly get their investments. Chick selling business is lucrative now and may continue few more years. What I heard from the emu farmers is demand for 3m – 1 yr emu birds is more, one farmer said he got enough orders for 2011-12 chicks (He owns 400 emu birds farm). It is good for current emu farmers, but one (Emu industry) shouldn’t rely on the revenues from the chick sale business alone. There will be no business or industry without the products.

Well, the good news in recent years is some farmers started to market the emu meat and emu oil. Some big farms are producing and supplying the emu meat and emu oil (in limited numbers). I was in Leonia Resorts, Hyderabad 2012 year celebrations, to my surprise emu dish was there in the dinner. I don’t know the responses from people who tasted (I am vegetarian) emu meat but response from Hotels and Restaurants are encouraging. All they need is continues supply of Emu meat (which we can’t supply considering the emu birds we have).

Emu processing units are going to start functioning in 2012. These processing units will rear the emu and extract emu products meat, oil, feathers and leather. Processing units buy the healthy emu birds with minimum weight of 40 kg and pays around 12,600 Rs per bird. Processing unit companies may target the emu products for domestic or export. It might be difficult to meet the quality regulations for exporting the emu meat to western markets.

At current 2012 is interesting year for Emu investors as there are few things needs to be watched for. It will be interesting to see how people will receive the emu products, as it is for sure at least 3 processing units will function in current year. The success of creating the “EMU Industry” depends on the success of these processing units and consumption of the emu products. Emu meat which is considered as healthy nutritious meat was recommended by doctors. The “Emu Industry” can survive even if 1% of Indian non-vegetarians start liking the emu meat.

Emu oil is having the good medical values and it has good market in pharmaceutical or cosmetic industry. There is a good demand in international markets for Grade ‘A’ and Grade ‘B’ emu oil. I can say the demand for emu oil is more compared to the demand for emu meat in international markets. 

Well, we are in the stage II in creating the “Emu Industry” and it is very critical period. Now we (Emu Associations & Emu farmers) need to educate more people about the Emu products, its benefits and create awareness. The processing units, Emu associations should work with Emu farmers and make sure to supply the emu birds on a regular basis. Encourage the aspirant new emu farmers and educate them with emu farming and benefits. It is important that new emu farmers are educated with bigger picture of Emu Industry.

But the question here is do emu farmers be able to supply the emu birds for processing?